Bill Gates' 'Personal Agent' project for Microsoft might be called Office Now

Microsoft is currently developing a personal assistant app for Windows, iOS and Android called Office Now. The features of this app sound very similar to something that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently mentioned he was working on with the company, which he called "Personal Agent".

Gates mentioned this as part of his Reddit AMA session earlier this year:

"One project I am working on with Microsoft is the Personal Agent which will remember everything and help you go back and find things and help you pick what things to pay attention to. The idea that you have to find applications and pick them and they each are trying to tell you what is new is just not the efficient model - the agent will help solve this. It will work across all your devices."

Based on the screenshots and description posted by Neowin on Office Now, it sounds very similar to Gates' "Personal Agent".

"The app makes it easy to schedule meetings, quickly find emails that are directed specifically at you, get directions to a meeting, join a conference call and similar tasks. By opening the app, you get an 'executive summary' of your day which includes a high level look at your meetings for the day: if the meetings are back to back, if they are they require you to travel to them and how long it will take to get there too."

The app will also reportedly give users an alert if a meeting's time or date has been changed or cancelled. As with all of the unreleased Microsoft apps that have been revealed this week, there's no word on when, or even if, Office Now might be released.

Source: Neowin